One More Shot
by TeyrianTimelord
Summary: Sequel to "One More Gun." ONE SHOT Cougar and Maria need serious medical attention, but sending them to a hospital risks exposing the whole unit. Clay and Jensen have to gamble with their teammates' lives. NONSLASH CougarxOC T for violence and language
1. Chapter 1

**The Losers are back in the sequel to "One More Gun." Getting through the boring stuff: I do not own Clay, Aisha, Jensen, Pooch, Jolene, Max, Roque, or Cougar. I do reserve the copyrights to Maria, Alé, Marcos, and Jackie. Non-Slash. CougarxOC. Movieverse with a lot of plot twists. Enjoy!**

One More Shot

_Previously in "One More Gun"…_

"_Cougar has a crush!" Pooch and Aisha chimed simultaneously._

"_Take it easy, man, I was just making a joke."_

"_It was not funny," Cougar mumbled. He snatched his knife out of Clay's hand and slid it back into its sheath. "Next time, I will kill him." With that, he walked out the front door, slamming it hard behind him._

"_Hey," she said as calmly as she could. "Cómo te va?"_

_Cougar didn't answer her, but instead lightly traced the side of her face with his hand, the corners of his lips slightly pulled up. _

"_I'll take that as a 'better.'"_

"_Holy shit," Clay hissed. "What happened?"_

"_Do you think we have time to explain?" Maria screamed. "He shot Cougar!"_

_**The Losers**_

Jolene whipped out her cell phone and furiously dialed 911.

"State your emergency."

"One of our friends was just shot! We're at 2019 East Mountain Street." She said in one breath.

"Alright ma'am, stay on the line. We're sending an ambulance right now."

While Aisha examined Maria's sliced up arm, Pooch, Jensen, and Clay circled around Cougar. The sniper had both his hands pressed firmly against his side, streams of blood leaking out over his fingers. Jensen tried to regulate his own breathing. He'd never seen so much blood come out of his best friend! He bit his lip as Cougar groaned in pain when Roque and Clay lowered him to the steps. Pooch cut off his shirt to expose the wound. Jensen was ready to puke. There wasn't just a deep bullet tunnel through the flesh, but several nasty lacerations around it and peppered holes through his arm.

"Shotgun," Pooch hissed, using what was left of Cougar's shirt to seep up the flowing blood.

"How bad is it?"Maria asked from across the porch where Aisha was wrapping up her arm.

"Not good," Jensen replied. "The wounds themselves are nasty, but the shots missed the vital areas. The heavy bleeding is the problem."

"Oh God," Maria said in a barely audible voice. "Oh God. Oh God. Oh God!"

She pushed past the other guys and knelt down next to Cougar, lightly brushing his sweaty hair out of his face. Jensen bit his lip. Where was that God damned ambulance? Most of the color had drained out of Cougar's face and his breathing was becoming more shallow by the second. Maria grasped his hand.

"Cómo te va?" she whispered, her voice quavering.

Cougar winced.

"Podría ser peor."

Maria choked on a sad laugh that had to have been forced for Cougar's sake. Like many times before, Jensen didn't know what they were saying, but hearing their voices –hearing Cougar's voice- calmed him down. He was going to be okay. He had to be.

Clay pulled Jensen to the side, away from the others.

"You know as well as I do how large of a risk we're taking," Clay whispered. "We're still wanted men."

Jensen nodded.

"I'm aware, Colonel, but Cougar needs more help than we can give him."

Clay rubbed his forehead in deep thought. The gamble could go in either direction: a) Cougar would make it in and out of the hospital safely or b) the local officers had taken the time to read the FBI's most wanted list. Whichever it turned out to be, the unit would have to leave Springfield as soon as they could.

After what seemed like an eternity, the ambulance finally pulled into the driveway and four medics jumped out of the back. Two of them immediately brought a stretcher over to Cougar. One examined the body of the "pizza delivery guy" that had shot Cougar and stabbed Maria. The last medic examined Maria's arm, and told her that she needed to come to the hospital as well. The slices in her arm were worse than they thought before. After whispering to the ambulance driver, the man who had looked over the corpse approached Jolene.

"Ma'am, are you the one that made the call reporting this incident?"

"Y-yes sir, I-I did," she stuttered in reply, still shaken from the whole incident.

"Can you please tell me everything that happened?"

"Well, I-I'm not sure, really. Maria was there," she pointed, identifying Maria. "We just heard the gunshots and the screaming."

"Can you please tell me the three victims' names?"

Clay stepped in on that question.

"We don't know the Domino's guy. The girl is Maria Valencia. The man is Sgt. Carlos Alvarez. Dog tags will identify him as Cougar Alvarez. He's one of the men in my special forces unit."

Jensen inhaled sharply. If the men had security knowledge above the county level, the team was done for.

The man nodded, but eyed the group in disbelief. Jensen couldn't blame him. They didn't exactly look like soldiers, and Clay sure as hell didn't look like a colonel who could lead them.

"Are any of you family to the wounded or deceased?"

"We may as well be. Most of us don't have any family left." Aisha said, surprising everyone with her involvement. "If there are any financial or insurance issues, I'll be the one to take care of it."

The medic nodded again. "Then I recommend you meet them at the hospital. We need to get there quickly. Mr. Alvarez needs immediate medical attention."

Pooch scoffed. "No shit? That's why we called you guys! Why are you still here?"

Maria suddenly ran up to Jensen. He was taken completely off guard when she quickly hugged him. At first he just stood there in shock, but then hesitantly touched her shoulders. What. The. Hell?

"You'll be okay," Jensen whispered, not knowing what else to say. "Cougar's gonna be okay. Everything is gonna be okay."

"When they fix my arm, look after him," she replied. "Don't leave him alone."

Jensen didn't know why, but he kissed the top of her head.

"I promise."

_**The Losers**_

When Maria opened her eyes she saw two doctors standing over her and a police officer standing at the door. She rubbed her head. God, it hurt so much! Those pain killers they gave her reduced the tooth-rattling throbbing in her arm, but it created one hell of a migraine. Maria sat up in the hospital bed as the officer approached her. Even though there were doctors in the room and everyone was doing everything for her and Cougar, she felt vulnerable without a side arm, especially when she saw a 30 30 in the officer's hip holster.

"I'm Officer James Redding," the cop announced. "Are you Maria Valencia?"

"I am," she replied calmly. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I think you can." Redding pulled up one of the doctors' rolling chairs. "I'm from Springfield Homicide Investigation concerning the death of a local Domino's pizza delivery man. I need your account of what happened this evening."

Maria took a deep breath. The team wanted all over the United States. Aisha was wanted all over the world. How much did this investigator know about the CIA watch list? How much could she say about them and herself.

Taking a deep breath, Maria began her story.

"Sgt. Alvarez and I were sitting on the front steps of Mr. and Mrs. Curley's house. Mr. Curley is one of the officers in Colonel Clay's unit, so they let the rest of the team stay over for vacation. Well, today wasn't such an easy day for us. The other team members tossed around a few… unreasonable accusations about Sgt Alvarez's agenda while Mrs. Curley and I were out grocery shopping. When we got back around five o'clock, I was informed that he had left to spend some time alone. I was worried, so I sat outside the front porch waiting for him. It was about eight when he came back. We had a lot to talk about at that point, and we ended up sitting there together for another hour. That's when the pizza guy arrived.

"He said that Mrs. Curley had ordered a pizza, so I stuck my head inside to ask for the money to pay him. Only, no one order pizza. That's when he threw that damn knife in my arm, probably to shut me up from exposing his cover even more. Sgt. Alvarez fired the first shot, hitting him in the chest, I think. But he didn't die right away, and took the last moment to shoot Cou- I mean, Sgt. Alvarez. Then I pulled my pistol and put a bullet in his gut. That's it I guess."

Redding nodded, but otherwise didn't respond right away. Maria fidgeted. Had she said too much? Too little? Hell, no one had even told her if Cougar was still alive! They just knocked her out with those damned pain killers the minute she laid down on the bed.

"Maria Valencia," Redding finally said, shaking his head a little. "Where does that name come from?"

"Argentina," she replied hesitantly. What was he getting at? "My father's homeland."

"Ah, I should have guessed. You have a faint accent. How long did you stay in the country?"

"Only four years, on a green card. I lived in Virginia most of my life."

Redding leaned forward, as if to get out of his chair. "So you're a citizen of the United States?"

Maria raised her eyebrows in suspicion. "Of course. Why?"

Redding nodded, and then rose from his chair. He spoke to one of the doctors in a hushed voice. The doctor shook his head and said just loud enough for Maria to hear, "But neither are in a condition to leave yet!"

Redding rolled his eyes with a lack of patience. "I am aware of their medical situations, but our nation's security is more important."

Maria's head snapped up, but before she could make it through the door, Redding had her arms behind her back and already started clasping handcuffs over her wrists.

"Maria Valencia you are under arrest for the murder of Charles Parker, aiding and abetting on six charges, assault, battery, evading arrest, theft, conspiracy, and driving an uninsured vehicle."

_**The Losers**_

Jensen watched in horror as the two police officers nearly dragged Maria down the hospital hall toward the front exit. He held his breath when they passed underneath his precarious perch. Well, if one of the hospital's air ducts could be called a perch. This was insanity! How did they find them! He mentally kicked himself for allowing Jolene to call an ambulance, and for Clay to tell the officers their real names. But if they hadn't, Cougar would be dead.

Suddenly, Maria whirled around toward the ward they had just come from.

"Where's Cougar?" She shouted. "Where is he?"

One of the officers yanked her forward. "Don't worry, he'll be along soon enough."

Jensen winced when she swung around and side-kicked the officer square in the nose, then brought it around in a roundhouse kick to the other's knee. Without waiting for the last officer standing to respond, she dashed down the hall back toward the direction of the room where Cougar was. Jensen dropped his head into his hands as six men donning FBI jackets filed in through the door, all holding some sort of long bore firearm. Without a weapon, Maria didn't stand a chance.

He took out his cell phone and dialed Clay's number.

"This had better be good," the colonel growled.

"It's not. The FBI just got here, and Maria was arrested a few minutes ago. I don't know what's gonna happen to Cougar."

"Jensen," Clay said sternly. "You need to get out of there right this minute."

"But Colonel, Cougar and Maria-"

"That's an order soldier! We can hear the sirens coming up the road. Cougar and Maria won't stand a chance unless we can regroup and rescue them as a team. Is that clear?"

Jensen sighed. "Perfectly." It took all of his will power not to scream into the phone, _'this is all your fault!' _

The call ended without any form of goodbye. Jensen knew that if he didn't listen to Clay Cougar wouldn't receive the medical attention he needed, the team would end up being shot on site, Jolene would get arrested for aiding and abetting, and George would be sent to a foster home. But at the same time, it felt so wrong to just walk away. Cougar had always been there for him, and even though Maria had only been a part of their lives for two weeks, she could make his best friend laugh and that was enough for Jensen. How could he just leave them behind? It would be hours before the team would have the chance to rescue them. It only took a second to pull a trigger.

Jensen picked up his phone again and pressed the redial button.

"Jensen!" Clay roared from the other end of the line. "What the hell do you need?"

"You, all of you," Jensen replied with all the courage he could muster. "Cougar could be dying. Maria could be dead. We need to rescue them _now!_"

_**The Losers**_

Cougar tried to open his eyes, but even that much movement sent spasms of pain shooting through his body. Something was horribly wrong. There was nothing around him but darkness, cold darkness, silent darkness. That wasn't right! It should have been warm. He should have heard voices. He should have heard the clicking of Jensen's keyboard, or the monotonous tapping of Maria's sneakers against the floor, or medical equipment beeping. But all there was surrounding him was the sound of his own labored breath.

_Where am I?_

Harnessing all the strength left in his body, Cougar forced his eyes open. He was met by a harsh light, immediately overpowering his vision, making his whole skull burn. All he wanted to do was go back to sleep, but a strict force in his gut, almost instinctual, ordered him to sit up and assess his situation. Cougar obeyed to the best of his ability, but was only able to move a few inches without choking on a muffled scream of sheer pain. It took several attempts until he could finally prop himself up enough to look around.

_What the hell?_

He was lying on the floor of a four-sided room, walls painted completely black, empty save for a single hanging light and vault-like door.

_How did I get here?_

Cougar was about to scour his memory for what, or who, could have forced him out of the hospital to this… cell, when the sound of boots on concrete echoed from outside the door. He instantly dropped back down to his original position. The door slightly creaked open, and he had to bite his lip to keep from howling as a far too familiar voice from outside screamed in fury, "Quita tus manos de encima! Déjame ir! El pago se efectúa por este en la sangre, lo juro por Dios!"

He heard the door slam shut, followed by a frustrated groan and a fist colliding with steel.

"Maldita sea…" the voice muttered.

Cougar couldn't help himself.

"Ver su idioma, Maria," he murmured. "No sé quién puede estar escuchando."

Maria spun around from where she was kneeling near the door, clutching her bleeding hand. Now that he had a full view of her, Cougar felt sick to his stomach. A thin line of blood stained the corner of her lips, partnered with a large purple bruise circling her left eye and an open gash at the hair line above her right temple. The gauze bandage on her lacerated forearm was dripping with fresh blood. It obviously needed to be changed several hours ago. The remains of her slices t-shirt barely clung to her figure as she crawled across the floor to Cougar's side, slowed by a noticeable twist in her left knee. Cougar reached out his hand to her when she came close enough to reach. It seemed a struggle to even come into contact. When at last Maria pulled herself to Cougar's good side, he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her to his chest.

"Eres tan fuerte," he whispered in her ear, grasping her shaking hand. "Tan hermosa."

She dropped her head into his shoulder.

"Yo nos traicionó sin saberlo. Eso no es la belleza o la fuerza."

Though it sent shots of pain down his body, Cougar held Maria protectively. Those bastards tricked them! The pizza man, they knew Jolene would call 911. They knew everyone would risk being captured to get Cougar and Maria the medical attention they needed to survive. Hell, if Maria hadn't moved her arm in time, she's be worse off than him! So what happened next? Did anyone come to rescue them? Was the team safe or were they in similar cells?

"Dejar de mirar a la puerta. Nadie viene a ayudarnos." Maria whispered hopelessly, lightly running her fingers over Cougar's hair. "Estamos solos."

Cougar shook his head. He refused to accept defeat. Even if they were nearly dead and had to dig their way back to the team with nothing but a toothpick, he was going to find a way out. But that first required learning where they were escaping from…

"Dónde estamos?" he asked.

Maria looked up at him with drooping eyes. He could see the despair building up in a glaze of unreleased tears.

"Estamos en el Infierno."

"Qué?"

"I'm serious!"

The sudden English outburst startled Cougar.

"Some call this place Hell. Others call it The Dragon's Pit. But to the military world, it's simply Unit 16."

Cougar raised his eyebrows. He still didn't understand. Maria read his face and sighed somberly.

"It's where they take war criminals to die. And we're next in line."

**Cliff hanger! To be continued in the next part of my Losers chronicles. And I promise, the next one will be a real thriller! But not if you people don't review! **

**Remember: add me to your AUTHORS watch list if you want to be alerted when the next story comes out. If you just add the story to your watch list, you WILL NOT be notified. **


	2. Spanish to English Translations

Spanish to English Translations for "One More Shot"

Cómo te va? – How are you?

Podría ser peor – Could be worse

Quita tus manos de encima! Déjame ir! El pago se efectúa por este en la sangre, lo juro por Dios! – Get your hands off me! Let me go! You will pay for this in blood, I swear to God!

Maldita sea… - Damn it…

Ver su idioma, Maria, No sé quién puede estar escuchando – Watch your language, Maria, you do not know who might be listening.

Eres tan fuerte, tan hermosa – You are so strong, so beautiful

Yo nos traicionó sin saberlo. Eso no es la belleza o la fuerza – I unknowingly betrayed us. That is not beauty or strength

Dejar de mirar a la puerta. Nadie viene a ayudarnos. Estamos solos. – Stop watching the door. No one is going to help us. We are alone.

Dónde estamos? – Where are we?

Estamos en el Infierno – We're in hell


End file.
